07:27 AM EDT, 04/09/2020 (MT Newswires) -- Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (KL.TO) was at last look up 2.65%, and was even higher, in U.S. pre-market trade and, so, looks set to recover some of yesterday's 0.7% loss on the TSX after reporting overnight Wednesday a 43% yearly increase in gold output for the first quarter. The company said it produced 330,864 ounces of gold for the quarter compared with 231,879 ounces of gold in the same period last year.

The first-quarter output included 91,555 ounces of gold from the Detour Lake mine, which the company acquired through its takeover of Detour Gold Corp. (DGC.TO) in January. Excluding this, production was still 3% higher year over year thanks to a 24% output improvement from the Fosterville mine. Gold sales also grew to 344,586 ounces from 232,929 ounces last year.

Kirkland said it has taken numerous steps to protect people from COVID-19, including shutting down Holt Complex and substantially reducing operations at Detour Lake and Macassa. "Notwithstanding," Tony Makuch, President and Chief Executive Officer, in a statement said, "we fully expect to carry out extensive drill programs at Fosterville, Macassa and Detour Lake during 2020. All three of these mines have considerable exploration upside, which we believe will fuel strong growth in Mineral Reserves. Detour Lake already has a large Mineral Reserve base and mine life. Our goal is to significantly increase the current base of 14.8 million ounces, which will help drive production growth while also maintaining a long mine life.

"At Macassa, we had very encouraging exploration results in 2019, including large extensions to the South Mine Complex and the intersection of high-grade zones along the Amalgamated Break. At Fosterville, we succeeded in substantially extending the Phoenix System down-plunge of the Swan Zone, demonstrated the potential of Robbin's Hill to be a second mining operation at Fosterville, and intersected the quartz with visible gold mineralization that largely comprises the Swan Zone in multiple areas across the mining lease. Based on our recent results, we are confident that both Macassa and Fosterville have the potential for significant Mineral Reserve growth through continued exploration success."